Ten years
by desertwindfromthesahara
Summary: A story featuring the relationship between McQueen and Sally through the years.


Do you ever feel like a long timespan is only a few months? Or just a few weeks? It can happen quite frequently, especially if a big change is taking effect in your life. Things change so quickly that it keeps you so distracted, causing you to lose your sense of time. The change can be either positive or negative, or have a small or a big effect on your life. Perhaps the effect of it lasts forever, shaping your the so-called "path of life", pushing you to make the right or wrong decisions.

This is the feeling a red hot-shot Piston Cup racer, Lightning McQueen, came across after a big, life-changing race in the city of Nashville, Tennessee. It was quite a coincidence, when he woke up in the middle of a road after getting accidentally separated from his transport truck. At first he thought, for several days, that it was such a big mistake. He thought that it was something that ruined his entire career for good. But he had no idea that later on it would turn out to be the best coincidence of his lifetime.

The next morning after he accidentally tore up the asphalt of a little, dying town on the Route 66, he was taken to the court of the town. There was that old, grumpy grandpa-car who wanted to throw him out the second he noticed that he was a race car, not wanting one of them in his town. Lightning felt relieved by the news, but just before he was released, a baby blue Porsche drove in. Her name was Sally Carrera, and judging by her looks, she was not from that town. Absolutely not. But he was wrong. So wrong.

At first, she didn't really like the young stock car at all. He came across cocky, self-centered, loud, hungry for public appeal and fame. Those characteristics were the ones she hated. Cars like him were something that she tried to avoid as much as possible after she left California and ended up in Radiator Springs. He was so selfish and disrespectful, even if she immediately noticed that he fancied her somehow. His frustration reached the peak as he was forced to do community service, having to fix the road that he had completely messed up earlier that week.

However, as the days passed and she asked him if he wanted to have a room in her motel, she began to see some good in him. The cockiness in him remained, but he began to express himself more openly and became easier to talk with. That eased up the tension between them, and McQueen finally opened up to her and showed her the side that even he was unaware of.

Lightning realized the beauty of living when Sally took him for a ride during his last days before the race in Los Angeles. The curving road under his tires felt just right as they drove along. Sally soon passed by him as he was stunned by the beautiful surroundings. He slowed down, and focused solely on the feeling that suddenly took over him. The only distraction was the blue Porsche that looked right back into his eyes, waterfall flowing gorgeously behind her. She was the one. And when she was with him, Lightning knew he had nothing to worry about. Nothing else mattered.

He soon realized that he wasn't the person he used to be anymore. Just a week in that town changed the way he saw the world around him. It opened his eyes, and he felt like as if the beauty of life had been hidden from him for ages. Those uncountable miles that he had spent on asphalt felt meaningless compared to what his life could be if he had stayed in that town. He wanted to stay, but soon he was dragged away from it to compete in Los Angeles. He had to leave the town, and it felt so bad.  
"I wish that you find what you are looking for." Sally wished him just before the paparazzis surrounded Lightning with their cameras. He attempted to get through the crowd, but it was impossible once they began to push him into his trailer. He looked like as if he had just lost everything, and didn't give the paparazzi any reaction to their questions or the flashes from their cameras. That moment took away all the positive content he had left in his life.


End file.
